ALS 354: Bioscience Strategy

This course is designed to develop the “general management point of view” among participants. This point of view is the best vantage point for making decisions that affect long run business performance. It views the firm as a whole, and examines how policies in each functional area are integrated into an overall competitive strategy. To achieve this overarching objective (i.e. help participants develop a general management perspective), we will devote the majority of our class time to the analysis and discussion of selected management, competitive strategy, and business policy cases. Occasional lectures will be given to elaborate on key theoretical models and frameworks or to reinforce crucial concepts. These lectures, however, will be subordinate to the case analysis. Cases provide a natural “test-bed” for theory and provide vivid examples that aid memory of concepts. While nothing can surpass first hand personal industry and managerial experience as a basis for analysis and decision-making, case analysis is an indispensable proxy for the kind of knowledge that can only be gained through years of experience and research. A mix of old and new business cases has been selected on a range of companies with particular focus to industry settings associated with healthcare issues, bioscience innovations and other science-based businesses with similar dynamics.

Course materials

The ALS 354 case reader should be purchased from the Harvard Business Review website. Due to the vigorous enforcement of copyrights by Harvard Business School, it is mandatory that students purchase the case reader. Any unauthorized copying of Harvard Business School cases will be treated as a KGI honor code violation. All other readings will be available on the on-line Sakai system within the ALS 354 course.

Prerequisites

Mandatory for first year MBS students

Learning Objectives

Students will learn to:

develop the perspective of a general manager and identify strategic issues commensurate with this perspective.